Philip Christman reviews What Are Intellectuals Good For? by George Scialabba. He summarizes it. “One thing they’re not good for, argues Scialabba, is constructing secular substitutes for religion. Whether they’re Marx’s, Kant’s, or someone else’s, accounts of justice, human nature, or rights that try to specify once and for all the nature of human life are doomed to failure.”
In vain, men set themselves up as the mouths of god.
I’ve been listening to ‘Intellectuals and society’ by Thomas Sowell, and recommend it.
– Sowell makes more sense (on most things) than almost anyone I know of. Too bad he’s mostly ignored and unread.
Let me give you an example of the book I listened to today.
– Sowell mentions a case from England, where an elderly woman scared off some thugs by firing a toy gun at them (it had blanks in it). The police arrested her on the charge of putting fear into someone with a gun… or somesuch insane charge. (I hear these things and I can’t believe them. This would be satire if it weren’t real.)
– How can the humorists compete with PC bureaucrats? They’ve got their work cut out for them.
There was public outcry, I hope.